Patch panels are often used to provide an interconnection between telecommunication outlets and active equipment. One difficulty experienced with patch panels is knowing which port of the patch panel is connected to which port on the active equipment. One solution to this problem is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,574,586, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference. U.S. Pat. No. 6,574,586 discloses a system in which an adapter jacket having an external contact is placed on the plug. Outlets include an adapter board having a socket contact. The socket contacts are wired to an analyzer which then can determine which sockets are connected by patch cords by applying a signal to each socket contact.
A drawback to the system of U.S. Pat. No. 6,574,586 is that modifications must be made to the plug (i.e., the addition of an adapter jacket) and the outlet (i.e., the addition of the adapter board) to determine port connectivity. The adapter board requires additional space on the patch panel. Furthermore, existing commercially available patch cords do not include the adapter contact needed to engage the socket contact.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,483,467, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference, discloses another system for monitoring port connectivity. This system also uses extraneous hardware such as an inductive coupler at each outlet.
There is a need in the art for a port connectivity monitoring system which uses existing patch cords to provide information on port connectivity with little or no space-consuming hardware components.